Stage 7: Lyon to Morzine-Avoriaz (230.5km)

Virenque back in front

It is 12 years since Richard Virenque first captured French hearts on the Tour, taking the yellow jersey at Pau at the tender age of 22.

Since then he has known both glory and disaster, but yesterday as the Tour entered the Alps he managed the grand slam: the sixth stage win of his career, the maillot jaune and the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey.

In the last two years, the diminutive climber has been overtaken as the national darling by Laurent Jalabert, who is retired and following the Tour from a television motorbike. The scene in this centenary Tour is set for a resurgence of Virenquemania, the massive surge of nationalistic fervour that accompanied his great days of the mid-1990s, before he was banned from racing for confessing to using banned drugs.

Yesterday, all the portents were there. At the top of the first major climb of this Tour, the Col de la Ramaz, the locals had distributed 7,000 T-shirts in the red polka dots of the King of the Mountains jersey, which France now associates with Virenque and Jalabert. A vast measled jersey, 50ft long, had been hung by the local alpinistes on the cliff opposite the summit.

'Remember Richard, Morzine is for you,' read one sign, referring to his win here in 2000 but that thought was not, apparently in Virenque's mind when he leapt away 20 miles into the 140-mile stage to pursue four leaders. Instead, his aim as they increased their lead was to earn points for the King of the Mountains prize, which he has already won five times. A sixth victory this year - and it is not now out of the question - will equal the record held by the Tour's two greatest mountaineers, Lucien van Impe and Federico Bahamontes.

'I just wanted the mountains prize, but the yellow jer sey is magic because I dared to attack,' he said afterwards. 'It's magic because I wanted to do something in the centenary Tour, and with the maillot jaune it will be crazy tomorrow. I'm not going for overall victory, because I can't time trial well enough, but I will try to defend the mountains prize.'

The eight-mile Col de la Ramaz, first major climb of the Tour, and tackled for the first time by the Tour in searing heat, was decisive. First, Virenque pedalled away from the three survivors of the early escape who had accompanied him this far. The German from the Telekom team, Rolf Aldag, hung on, and indeed led for a short while, but by the summit with its panorama of snow-capped peaks, and only 14 mainly downhill miles into Morzine remaining, Virenque was clear and the yellow jersey beckoned.

There were other surprising sights. The Colombian Santiago Botero, tipped to trouble Armstrong after taking a time trial and a moun tain stage last year, was a grim sight, barely able to pedal, zig-zagging in the manner of a non-climber and finishing 6min 17sec behind. On past form, however, he will recover and win tomorrow.

The climb also witnessed that rare thing: the race leader riding as a mere domestique. Early on the climb, the Colombian Victor Hugo Pena - one of Armstrong's most loyal servants but the maillot jaune since Wednesday - pedalled up to the front of the lead group and set a searing pace, before bidding farewell to the little peloton, and with it to his yellow jersey. It is now Armstrong's to win, but he is 2min 37sec behind Virenque, who may last out until Friday's time trial.

Pena was just one beneficiary of a remarkably successful opening week for Armstrong's US Postal Service team, who won the team time trial in north-east France on Wednesday, and yesterday morning had eight of their men in the first eight places overall. Their main victim was the little Italian Gilberto Simoni, double winner of the Giro d'Italia, and one of the few men in the peloton with the climbing ability to trouble Armstrong, who had an appalling time in the c ontre la montre par équipes, losing three minutes.

Yesterday, his Tour went from bad to worse when he was unable to hold the pace on the Ramaz and he is now more than 9min behind Armstrong. The lone Briton in the race, David Millar, managed better, taking eighth and moving up to 23 overall.

The horrifying mass pile-up last Sunday 700 metres from the finish line in the town of Meaux, which left 25 cyclists on the ground, ended the chances of two other contenders. Levi Leipheimer, who finished eighth overall last year, was put out immediately with a fractured pelvis, while Tyler Hamilton, leader of the CSC-Tiscali team, was left nursing two hairline cracks in his right collarbone. Incredi bly, for a man who should not have been there at all, Hamilton managed to stay with the leaders yesterday. He should be in hospital, but few forget that he took second in last year's Tour of Italy after riding for two weeks with a cracked shoulder blade.

US Postal's only scare of the Tour's opening eight days also came in Meaux, where Armstrong flew into the air and landed on the pile of riders and bikes. The following day, he complained, was 'one of the toughest' he had suffered on the Tour, as his body reacted to whiplash from the crash, but the arrival of his team's osteopath loosened him up. He did not look at his best on the Ramaz yesterday, but then again, nor did anyone apart from Virenque.

William Fotheringham's book 'A Century Of Cycling' (Mitchell-Beazley, £20) is available from the Observer Books Service. To order a copy for £17 plus p& (rrp £20), call 0870 066 7989